There are a lot of games on the market right now, offering players the option of choice between combat and stealth. But most of the time, we get bored and resort to good old fashioned fisticuffs to solve our moral conundrums.
Arkane Studios however, are busy developing their latest game, Dishonoured, to be the type of game that will allow you to complete missions without shedding a single drop of blood, and to do it in a manner that sounds fun actually.
In an interview with IGN, Co-Director Harvey Smith explained the studio wants to implement a more varied approach to stealth gameplay, making it a more dynamic mechanic than in other games.
“Our goal is to let you ghost the gameâ€. No guard ever went ‘Hey, what’s that?’, because you snuck by behind him or you stopped time and no alarm was ever sounded. You can actually complete the game without killing anyone. For all the key targets, all the assassination targets, there are more thorough behind-the-scenes alternate ways to eliminate themâ€.
Smith then went on to describe this gameplay as “extreme extremeâ€, noting that most players would use a mixture of action and stealth. Dishonoured will also measure the precision of players with the Chaos system.
“Killing a guard is chaotic, but not very chaoticâ€, explained fellow co-creative director Raphael Colantonio . “Killing a maid, this creates more chaos. Ringing an alarm creates chaos. After some threshold we have consequencesâ€. But don’t think that this is a game that will have constantly negative consequences piling up on players.
“Some of them are more like atmospheric effects like there are more rats, for example. Some of them have gameplay consequences like there are more guards patrolling the area. And some of them are story consequences like this ally may now betray you or instead be very excited. It’s all linked to different effects all the way down to the endingsâ€, Colantino said.
“We talked about powers that made you a figure of darkness, and eventually we started calling the plague the rat plagueâ€, Smith elaborated. “Then we started wondering what we could do with rats dynamically. They avoid light, they’re attracted to bodies if you leave bodies out. If there are many of them they will veer off and attack somebodyâ€.
“If there are only a few they shy away. We don’t do many things that are just ambient, cosmetic things in the background. If we can turn those into gameplay, why wouldn’t we?â€.
Sounds great so far, as well as a fun alternative to games that offer stealth gameplay that usually consists of memorising patrol patterns and being patient. Dishonoured hits all major platforms next year.
Last Updated: August 30, 2011